This watchdog blog, by journalist Norman Oder, offers analysis, commentary, and reportage about the $4.9 billion project to build the Barclays Center arena and 16 high-rise buildings at a crucial site in Brooklyn. Dubbed Atlantic Yards by developer Forest City Ratner in 2003, it was rebranded Pacific Park in 2014 after the Chinese government-owned Greenland Group bought a 70% stake in 15 towers. New York State still calls it Atlantic Yards. Contact: AtlanticYardsReport[at]hotmail.com

Saturday, May 19, 2007

From the New York Observer, news that first surfaced from the pseudonymous blogger mole333 in Daily Gotham: the anti-Atlantic Yards stance of Community Board 6 is leading Borough President Marty Markowitz, along with Atlantic Yards supporters like Council Member Bill de Blasio, to replace several CB 6 members.

While de Blasio "sees a vote against Atlantic Yards as a vote against affordable housing," that's certainly debatable. After all, affordable housing groups like the Fifth Avenue Committee and the Pratt Area Community Council have opposed the project and its present affordable housing configuration, as members of BrooklynSpeaks, at whose rally last month de Blasio spoke.

Windows and air con

From Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, news that Forest City Ratner is offering residents in and around the Atlantic Yards footprint double pane windows and air conditioners--but they must respond in 30 days. DDDB comments:First, this seems premature as the "Atlantic Yards" project's fate is in federal and state court.Second, if this is a State mandated mitigation measure, why do residents have to make their decisions on this intrusive "noise attenuation," within an artificial 30-day time period set by Forest City Ratner?

Sounds like another question for the Empire State Development Corporation's Atlantic Yards ombudsperson, who's not yet on board.